Corporate arm of Colliers buys Cleveland operation

Colliers International Group Inc. (NASDAQ, TSX: CIGI), the Toronto-based corporate parent of the real estate brokerage, announced Monday, March 7, it has acquired its Greater Cleveland-Akron and Greater Cincinnati-Dayton affiliates.

Colliers said in the news release that as company-owned operations, the Cleveland-Akron offices and the Cincinnati-Dayton offices will continue to build on their market presence by increasing service capabilities and leveraging the resources of Colliers’ growing and innovative corporate platform.

Colliers Greater Cincinnati-Dayton opened the Cleveland office in 2012 as an affiliate of its operation, with Brian Hurtuk, a veteran industrial and office broker in the region, as its Cleveland managing director and principal. The Akron office was added later.

Hurtuk said in a phone call that he plans to remain with Colliers.

“None of the leadership changes,” Hurtuk said. “I worked too hard to get to this point with a lot of people’s help. We had great services with corporate in the past, and that will only be better.”

Shenan Murphy, vice chairman of Colliers | Greater Cincinnati–Dayton and Colliers | Cleveland–Akron, said in the release that “integrating into Colliers was a natural next step that will allow us to capitalize on more opportunities in our two markets. We look forward to accelerating our growth and continuing our success story by being a part of Colliers’ highly respected, global platform and leveraging its size, capital, established infrastructure, and industry leadership.”

The Cleveland-Akron group, headquartered at 200 Public Square, ranked as the fifth-largest commercial real estate brokerage in Northeast Ohio, according to the Crain’s Cleveland Business commercial brokerages list published Monday, with 25 licensed professionals and a full-time equivalent staff of 46. The company told Crain’s that in 2021 it handled 87 sales with almost 16 million square feet of property, and 138 leases with a total of 1.4 million square feet.

The combined offices have about 100 professionals.

Ryan Kratz, Colliers president, Southeast and Mid-Central Regions U.S. brokerage, said the acquisition is part of its strategic growth plan for the Midwest.

The two areas are important to Colliers, he said, because of “Cincinnati’s and Cleveland’s diverse economies, low cost of living, strategically advantageous locations and well-educated populations.”

Colliers has operations in 64 countries and 17,000 professionals. In 2021, its global revenues exceeded $4 billion.

The Ohio operations provide landlord agency, tenant representation, investment sales brokerage, property management, and project management services to investors, developers and occupiers of commercial real estate.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.